In the opening round of the Group 4 South boys’ soccer tournament, ninth-seeded Millville High School was eliminated by eighth-seed Egg Harbor Township 1-0. The memory has stuck with the senior ever since and has been magnified by playoff defeats in other sports.

“It actually comes across my mind a lot. We would really like to push a lot farther too,” Grotti, a senior forward, said. “Especially for me, because last year in baseball, (Millville) lost to Clearview in the Group 4 finals. That was heartbreaking. And I would love to come back in soccer and just win this time, you know? I love these guys and if I could do it with them that would be a dream come true.”

It’s just a matter of things coming together and the Thunderbolts squad believes that can be accomplished.

Coach Christian Varga wants the team to just focus on the task at hand and be more consistent. Last season, the Bolts started 7-0 with the look of a real contender before hitting a rough 4-7-2 stretch heading into the playoffs.

“We had early success last year,” Varga said. “We made the Coach’s Tournament for the first time in 15 or 16 years. Even though we didn’t do so well in it, that’s one of the goals now. Get back there. Since I’ve been coaching here, we’ve never even checked the website.

“Then we went through a tough stretch where we lost a couple of games to some very tough team. Atlantic City, St. Augustine twice and tied Vineland. We have our core back, so most of the guys saw what happened last year and they want to get back there.”

The plan is to rely on a strong group of seniors throughout the season. Along with Grotti, seniors Michael Gluszak, Ryan Hayes and Andrew Sooy will play big parts all over the field.

“Our strength is just how we work together as a group,” Grotti said. “We have everyone’s back. If someone goes down and loses a ball, there’s someone else right there. So I think the fact that we’re so close and work so hard, that’s definitely one of our biggest strengths going into the season.”

“Our confidence is pretty good,” Varga added. “After this first week, we’ll be able to tell right where we’re at. We have two of the top teams in the conference (St. Augustine and Mainland) that will be battling for the top spot. That will definitely give us a good barometer of where we stand.”

Grotti also has a little more at stake in his final season. He’s 17 goals away from breaking the career goal record at Millville held by his cousin Mitch Grotti. While getting the record would be quite the accomplishment, it’s not the real goal.

The senior has a real commitment to his team and doesn’t want to put anything ahead of his guys.

“It’s in the back of my head, but I don’t try to put it as a priority,” Grotti said. “I just want to win games. In one of our scrimmages, one of our center backs got hurt and I was the first one to go play defense. I’m just trying to do whatever I can to get us to win this year.”

“The record would be nice, but if it doesn’t happen and we win games, that’s fine. It won’t bother me too much.”

Winning games means making it back to the playoffs, where the real success of the season will be defined.

“Last year our goal was to get to states because we missed the year before,” Varga said. “Or real goal is to do something in states this year, not just get there. I think the expectations are higher for everybody.”